Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia | 
 enlarge | Author: Dennis Covington
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
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Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 29542
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0140254587
Dewey Decimal Number: 248
EAN: 9780140254587
ASIN: 0140254587
Publication Date: March 1, 1996
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Amazon.com Review
Salvation on Sand Mountain is a story of snake handling and strychnine drinking, of faith healing and speaking in tongues. It is also the story of one man's search for his roots--and, in the end, of his spiritual renewal. Writer Dennis Covington came to this ecstatic form of Christianity as a reporter covering a sensational murder case; Glen Summerford, pastor of the Church of Jesus with Signs Following, had been accused of attempting to kill his wife with rattlesnakes. There, in a courtroom filled with journalists and gawking spectators, Covington felt the pull of a spirituality that was to dominate his life for the next several years. Attending Summerford's church out of curiosity, he soon forged close friendships with some of the worshippers, began attending snake-handling services throughout the South, and eventually took up snakes himself. With subject matter this lurid, Salvation on Sand Mountain could have been a Southern-fried curiosity and little more. Covington goes far deeper. Tracing the snake handlers' roots in regional history, in the deep spiritual alienation of mountain people from the secular modern world they have so recently joined, Covington is more than just sympathetic to the snake handlers; in a profound way, he considers himself one of them. His reasoning is sometimes flawed--when he attempts to find snake handlers in his own family's past, for instance, the result is belabored and unconvincing--but there's no doubt that Covington's heart is in the right place. He's also not without his own brand of sly gallows humor, as in this conversation with the elderly Gracie McAllister: "She'd swore she'd never handle rattlesnakes in July again. She'd been bit the previous two Julys. 'I decided I'd just handle fire and drink strychnine that night,' she said. Good idea, I thought. It always pays to be on the safe side." Covington eventually breaks with the snake handlers, but comes away from the experience a changed man. "Knowing where you come from is one thing, but it's suicide to stay there," he writes. An American Book Award winner and finalist for the National Book Award, Salvation on Sand Mountain is a nuanced, compassionate portrait of an unforgettable spiritual journey. --Mary Park
Product Description
A journalist describes an assignment in the mountains of Alabama which led to his spiritual journey into the world of holiness snake handling, a faith whose followers characteristically place themselves in life-threatening situations. Reprint. Tour. NYT.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
 TERRIBLE!! September 29, 2008
I never recieved the book that I bought so I don't ever recommend this person for anyone. I payed money for a book and I never got it. I am furious.
 Absorbing read July 22, 2007
This remarkable book tells of the author's interest in the serpent-handling Holiness believers of the south, his own spiritual journey and a search for his roots. Covington attended his first snake handling service in 1992 at the Church of Jesus With Signs Following in Scottsboro, Alabama. His interest ultimately led him to churches in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The engaging text includes descriptions of the people, their faith, church services and sermons as well as ruminations on the south and in particular the culture of Appalachia. The author's personal quest for faith and belonging is the glue that holds the narrative together and make it so special.
Along the way Covington attends Brush Arbor services, delves into the history of the Holiness movement and discovers that Methodism gave rise to Pentecostalism which in turn gave birth to Holiness. He also discovers that his great great grandfather was an itinerant preacher in Northeast Alabama, an area where snake handling would start a generation after his death.
His engagingly descriptive prose includes the observation that the music "was like a cross between Salvation Army and acid rock." Describing a service in Jolo, he remarks that the organ playing of Lydia Elkins Hollins was like "cloth ripping" and that her voice was as raw and tortured as Janis Joplin's.
Finally, Covington handled snakes himself on Sand Mountain at the Old Rock House Holiness Church near the tiny hamlet of Macedonia south of Section, Alabama. His appraisal of the numinous experience of serpent-handling is riveting and lucid and includes observations of a change in consciousess and how the handler finds victory in the loss of self.
His involvement with the movement ended in December 1993 at a wedding at a church in Georgia. He preached about the role of women in the church and this did not go down well with the local preacher. Covington remarks that the real root of the problem was a dispute about the nature of God.
The narrative encompasses recollections of his childhood in East Lake, Birmingham, discussions of the various species of poisonous snakes, the lore of the snake-handlers, observations on the Appalachian landscape and speculations on the ecstatic religious experience.
Other interestings books on the Signs Following phenomenon include Serpent-Handling Believers by Thomas Burton, an in-depth study of handlers and their religious culture, and The Serpent Handlers: Three Families and Their Faith by Fred Brown and Jeanne McDonald, where the Signs Followers are allowed to speak for themselves.
Salvation On Sand Mountain contains black & white photographs of prominent preachers and church families, sermons, healings and handling. It is a most moving book in a style that grips the reader from the absorbing preface to the end. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in the American South and in religious phenomena in general.
Moving account of a culture and a spiritual quest July 21, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This remarkable book tells of the author's interest in the serpent-handling Holiness believers of the south, his own spiritual journey and a search for his roots. Covington attended his first snake handling service in 1992 at the Church of Jesus With Signs Following in Scottsboro, Alabama. His interest ultimately led him to churches in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.
The engaging text includes descriptions of the people, their faith, church services and sermons as well as ruminations on the south and in particular the culture of Appalachia. The author's personal quest for faith and belonging is the glue that holds the narrative together and make it so special.
Along the way Covington attends Brush Arbor services, delves into the history of the Holiness movement and discovers that Methodism gave rise to Pentecostalism which in turn gave birth to Holiness. He also discovers that his great great grandfather was an itinerant preacher in Northeast Alabama, an area where snake handling would start a generation after his death.
His engagingly descriptive prose includes the observation that the music "was like a cross between Salvation Army and acid rock." Describing a service in Jolo, he remarks that the organ playing of Lydia Elkins Hollins was like "cloth ripping" and that her voice was as raw and tortured as Janis Joplin's.
Finally, Covington handled snakes himself on Sand Mountain at the Old Rock House Holiness Church near the tiny hamlet of Macedonia south of Section, Alabama. His appraisal of the numinous experience of serpent-handling is riveting and lucid and includes observations of a change in consciousess and how the handler finds victory in the loss of self.
His involvement with the movement ended in December 1993 at a wedding at a church in Georgia. He preached about the role of women in the church and this did not go down well with the local preacher. Covington remarks that the real root of the problem was a dispute about the nature of God.
The narrative encompasses recollections of his childhood in East Lake, Birmingham, discussions of the various species of poisonous snakes, the lore of the snake-handlers, observations on the Appalachian landscape and speculations on the ecstatic religious experience.
Other interestings books on the Signs Following phenomenon include Serpent-Handling Believers by Thomas Burton, an in-depth study of handlers and their religious culture, and The Serpent Handlers: Three Families and Their Faith by Fred Brown and Jeanne McDonald, where the Signs Followers are allowed to speak for themselves.
Salvation On Sand Mountain contains black & white photographs of prominent preachers and church families, sermons, healings and handling. It is a most moving book in a style that grips the reader from the absorbing preface to the end. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in the American South and in religious phenomena in general.
A great read......... July 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book about 10 years ago. I immediately felt like I needed to check out a snake handling church on my own, mainly due to my morbid curiosity. For someone who doesn't consider myself to be a big reader, I couldn't put this book down. It was lively and entertaining, and vivid enough to allow the reader the ability to visualize what goes on inside the church's walls. BTW, I did attend a snake handling service in Kingston, GA after I read this book and was not disappointed.
Snake-Handling in the Southern Appalachia May 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A friend of mine recommended this book to me. I really enjoyed it. The author was able to give a real personal edge to it by not only writting about it but by becoming involved in the church itself.
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